This is not a sonnet, a gigan, a bop
but a first step
After Michael Cohen's televised hearing
on 2/27, Elijah Cummings, the Chairman
of the Intelligence Committee gave us
a glimpse of truth telling:
a no bullshit speech of stuttering,
sincerity, eloquence.
No teleprompter for Cummings,
who said this is not the first hearing,
telling the story of a mother who
could not get 333 dollars for her
daughter's insulin and watched her
die, told us what was sad about Cohen
was watching him leave the court
holding his daughter's arm, a child
who wore braces. Always the children.
Cummings spoke of the return
to a new normal, asked how
a president who, according to the
Washington Post, has lied over 8
thousand times, how could that man
lead our country.
My husband, who will turn 80 in May,
said, He hopes to see the New Normal,
wants his children and grandchildren
to live in a democracy that values
the constitution, respects truth.
Martin Luther King said,
"Faith is taking the first step
even when you don't see
the staircase."© Mare Leonard
You need to listen to Rep. Cummings' closing remarks
Mare lives and works in the Hudson Valley where she is an Associate of the Institute for Writing and Thinking and the MAT programs at Bard College. She has published chapbooks of poetry at 2River,Pudding House, Antrim House Pressand Red Ochre Lit and The Dark Inside My Hooded Coatis available from Finishing Line Pressand from her website:www Mare Leonard.com Finally she was nominated for a pushcart in 2018 for a poem published in The Pickled Body.
